Helmut Marko backs Verstappen for a late title heist: “Nerves and nuances” will decide it
Max Verstappen was 104 points down and fading after Zandvoort. A month later, he’s 36 behind Lando Norris with 116 still on the table. If that sounds like Red Bull’s favorite hunting ground—late, tight, and tense—that’s because Helmut Marko believes it is.
“We believe in it. We have the will and a small chance,” Red Bull’s motorsport advisor told sport.de, dusting off the old script that’s served Milton Keynes well over the years. “In 2010 we did it in the last race, in 2012 too, and in 2021 Verstappen became world champion on the last lap.” In other words: they’ve been here, and they don’t scare easily.
The turnaround started at Monza, where a new floor finally gave the RB21 the balance Verstappen has been begging for since spring. From there he banked 116 of a possible 133 points, carving into McLaren’s control and outscoring both Norris and Oscar Piastri for four straight weekends before Norris hit back in Mexico. It’s not a tidal wave, but it’s been relentless enough to drag the championship’s center of gravity back toward Red Bull.
Marko’s message now is simple: execution, not heroics. “Now it’s important to have strong nerves and not make any mistakes. Nuances will decide,” he said. Pit stop timing, out-laps, start procedures, calls under Safety Car—this is the part of the season where a tenth in the box or a gust of wind into Turn 1 can flip a weekend. Red Bull knows it. McLaren certainly does.
Verstappen’s not indulging in poetry; he’s gone practical. “First of all, we also need to be faster than them to the end of the season to close the gap down,” he said. “We had some good rounds where the gap came down. But now, with four races, it’s still a pretty big gap. I need to score a lot more points every single weekend, which is not that straightforward.”
Two of the four remaining rounds are Sprints, which means more risk, more opportunity, and more ways to get it wrong. It also suits the Verstappen-Red Bull profile when they smell an opening: qualify well, own the midfield traffic, and squeeze the orange cars on strategy. The RB21’s Monza-spec floor has given Verstappen the front-end confidence to attack kerbs and carry speed on corner entry again, which in turn has cleaned up tire life on Sundays. That’s been the backbone of this rebound.
McLaren, for their part, haven’t blinked often. Norris has looked like a man who finally believes a championship is his to lose, and Piastri has been the most efficient wingman in the field when the car’s been in its happy window. That’s the duel: Verstappen’s efficiency and Red Bull’s racecraft versus McLaren’s raw pace and sharper Saturdays.
Marko’s nod to the past isn’t nostalgia, it’s a reminder. In 2010 and 2012, Red Bull delivered titles by corralling chaos at the final round. In 2021, Verstappen won the most pressured last lap of his life. This group tends to grow fangs when a season goes to the wire.
But the margins are thinner now. The pit wall can’t overreach, Verstappen can’t afford traffic scrapes, and the garage can’t drop a wheel nut when the stopwatch is tight. As Marko said, it’s about nuances—and Red Bull being Red Bull when it matters.
Thirty-six points. Four weekends. Two sprints. It’s not a miracle run. It’s a knife fight. And if you believe the man in the dark glasses, Max Verstappen’s still very much in it.
